Students, colleagues and alumni gathered at a reception on April 19 honoring Professor Herma Hill Kay on the occasion of the publication of her oral history by the Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) at UC Berkeley. An acclaimed teacher and legal scholar, Kay was dean from 1992 to 2000 and serves as the Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law. Kay, a family law and anti-discrimination law expert, is the co-author of California’s no-fault divorce act.
“Great institutions have souls and those souls are embodied in great teachers,” said Elizabeth Cabraser ’78, a partner at Leiff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and a former student of Kay’s. “One of the most soulful of them all is Professor Kay.”
The Boalt event, which drew more than 150 participants, also included the presentation of the Herma Hill Kay Summer Fellowships. The fellowships, which went to a record number of students this year, were created in honor of Kay’s pioneering role in the field of women’s rights. They support students pursuing unpaid legal projects during the summer involving women’s issues. This year’s recipients of full fellowships were: Reem Salahi ’08, Lorna Peterson ’08 (sponsored by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher), Mara Escowitz ’08 (sponsored by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe) and Carrie Skolnick ’08 (sponsored by Sullivan & Cromwell). Recipients of supplementary grants were: Angela Hollowell-Fuentes ’08, Colleen Phillips ’08 and Justin Reinheimer ’08.
The reception was sponsored by the Boalt Hall Women’s Association (BHWA); Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice; Elizabeth Cabraser ’78; Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; and the Boalt Hall Alumni Association.